At least 500,000 troops have been killed since the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out in 2022, U.S. officials have revealed.
The officials, who spoke to New York Times, estimated Russia’s military casualties at 300,000, consisting of 120,000 fatalities and 180,000 injuries.
While the figures on the Ukrainian side were close to 70,000 killed and 120,000 wounded.
The officials cautioned that figures of casualties remained difficult to estimate because Moscow is believed to routinely undercount its war dead and injured, and Kyiv does not disclose official figures.
The casualties include active duty, reserve and paramilitary troops.
The officials said the casualties count had picked up after Ukraine launched a counter-attack earlier this year.
According to the officials, the slaughter intensified this year in eastern Ukraine and has continued at a steady clip as a nearly three-month-old counteroffensive drags on.
Analysts said Ukraine has around 500,000 troops and by contrast, Russia has almost triple that number, with 1,330,000 active-duty, reserve and paramilitary troops — most of the latter from the Wagner Group.
In just a year and a half, Ukraine’s military deaths have already surpassed the number of American troops who died during the nearly two decades U.S. units were in Vietnam (roughly 58,000) and about equal the number of Afghan security forces killed over the entire war in Afghanistan, from 2001 to 2021.
The number of dead and wounded reflects the amount of lethal munitions being expended by both sides.
The numbers also point to a lack of rapid medical care on the frontline as wounded soldiers are increasingly hard to evacuate given how much artillery and gunfire bookend each engagement.
